Have traumatizing food experiences led to you being vegetarian or vegan?!
Have traumatizing food experiences led to you being vegetarian or vegan?
I know we all talk about the reasons behind our dietary choices, usually it's the environment or the animals or something. But for me, it's plain old post traumatic stress disorder. I have been traumatized by food so much all that's left that I will eat is vegan.
I will not eat the following foods for the following reasons:
Any kind of meat: grew up on a farm, 'nuff said. Watched chickens run around without their heads, cows I had made into pets get shot in the head, etc etc.
Fish: We had a fish tank and when all the fish died, my mom never got around to scooping them out and flushing them. The tank was in the kitchen and one day I was eating fish sticks and watching them flake apart and rot and then I went and threw up and never ate fish again.
Eggs: Found a half-formed baby chick inside an egg.
Milk: Accidentally drank spoiled curdled milk and from then on the taste always brought to mind the spoiled taste. Ice cream, most cheeses reminds me of that awful taste.
1 month ago
Also, I won't eat bread that's more than a couple days old because I have a phobia of eating mold and having it take root in my sinuses. Plus I won't eat sno cones or pickles because they make me physically ill and I have no idea why.
Answers:
1 month ago
Also, I won't eat bread that's more than a couple days old because I have a phobia of eating mold and having it take root in my sinuses. Plus I won't eat sno cones or pickles because they make me physically ill and I have no idea why.
Chicken: years ago at KFC finding blood in chicken pieces.
Sausages: crunching down on gristle.
Eggs: cracking open an egg to bake a cake to find a bloody, scabby looking embryo in it.
Milk: that revolting aftertaste, and being at school with kids who used to vomit it up. The smell of milky sick is rancid.
Anyone who eats meat needs to look a rotting corpse, the decomposition stages. The mere smell of it, the maggots, the flies- it all reminds you that what you put in your body rots. It takes ages for fruit and veg to rot, and then, it's not offensive or particularly smelly.
Much rather have fruit and veg rotting away inside me than the big dirty lumps of meat associated with the black plaque that comes out during internal cleanses.
i grew up on a farm and i had a pet pig named pinky. he was my best friend and we would do everything together. well one cold winter when i was a little older, we were scarce on food and my dad said that we had to kill the pig so that we could have something to eat. i was devastated. i watched my dad slit my beloved pinky's throat and i helped gut him. i didnt eat dinner that night and i never looked at meat the same way again...
just kidding
We grew up on and around farms too, and having to slaughter your own dinner is never really appealing... But for some reason, it hasn't led me to not eat meat - ever.
I don't eat meat much, because I think it's not healthy, it's often cruel, and most of the time, I just prefer veges! I do eat it every now and again though.
Have you seen this kind of thing happen in other areas of your life? Did you once get bitten by a dog and now you're scared of dogs? Have you ever been lost, and now you'll never travel alone? Scared of snakes because you heard about someone who was bitten?
I'm not saying you should eat meat/eggs/dairy. In fact, you're probably physically healthier for your aversions.
However, I am concerned that you've dramatically changed the way you live based on single instances of unfavourable situations.
It's not healthy to shield yourself from living because one thing gave you an unsatisfactory result. It's unfortunate to accidentally eat curdled milk, but it shouldn't change your life.
You've had a string of bad experiences, I'll admit, but seeing a dead fish is not a life changing event.
Change your diet because you choose to, not because you're psychologically scarred and can't address these issues. I'd consider talking to a professional. What happens if you have a bad vegetable experience? Inedia is not an option!
You should really count your self lucky you live in a place where you can choose not to eat something, when people are starving they do not have the luxury of not wanting to eat some things.
I have never had a traumatic food experience, I have a very simple view of food.. I eat to live not live to eat.
Edit: Well now that I thought about it once I put what I thought was parmesan cheese on My pasta it was dehydrate onions, the label was missing. as I am allergic to garlic onions most bulb type plants I was very sick for a few days. what is bad about it is I love garlic and onions.
I haven't eaten McDonalds since one of my friends told me that she heard of someone eating Chicken Nuggets and finding a chicken bone in it! Eww!
The traumatizing experience I had was a good dose of truth and realisation that meat comes from sentient beings who are able to suffer. This happened gradually as I remember, through animal documentaries, and other information from animal righst organisations. A lot had to do with using my own common sense.
When I became a vegetarian and gave up meat, eggs, leather and fur (well, I never wore fur in my life). It took me another 11 years to give up dairy and honey, when I finally admitted to myself that dairy- and meat industry is one and the same platform for cruelty, and that taking food from animals (milk taken from calves and honey taken from bees) kills them. (duh!) This came from reading about factory farming, seeing videos and pictures of reality that many people never get to see.
I'm embarrassed to think that once I actually didnt know this, or didnt bother finding out; at the same time calling myself "animal friend". But here I am, a proud, happy, healthy vegan. :) I dont "personally" know many animals, so I cant really call them friends, but at least now I'm not their enemy.